Student Fellowship in Human Rights - Dejusticia

Applications for 2024 have now closed.

The Bonavero Institute Summer Fellowship at The Center for Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia) in Bogotá (Colombia) is a ten-week internship, tenable from early July to late September 2024. 

About Dejusticia

The Center for Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia) is a Colombia-based NGO working on strengthening the rule of law and promoting human rights in Colombia and across the Global South. We are a think/do tank that combines rigorous research and activism, a combination that makes our work challenging and exciting. Our research is informed by our activism, and our direct advocacy (through campaigns, litigation, education and capacity-building) is based on the evidence we gather and analysis we produce in our research. This overarching methodology of “action-research” guides our work as an organization.

Since our founding in 2005, our work has evolved into ten thematic areas: gender justice; racial and ethnic justice; economic justice (including fiscal justice; business and human rights; economic, social, and cultural rights; right to health; and the justiciability of socioeconomic rights); rule of law (anti-corruption, civic culture, and the workings of state institutions); technology, transparency, and human rights; environmental justice (participation, integral land use management, climate change); judicial systems; drug policy; transitional justice (including accountability of third party actors); and land and the peasantry. Cutting across our thematic work are our cross-cutting areas: strategic litigation, communications, education, regionalization, and internationalization. In addition to supporting thematic work, our international team works on the closing of spaces for civic participation, migration, and climate change.

Our methodology is three-pronged. First, we produce rigorous legal and social science research with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of systemic failures and rights violations. Second, we leverage our expert knowledge to contribute to direct action campaigns, litigation or interventions in public policy design and public opinion forums. Finally, we promote free access to knowledge for human rights through capacity building and experience sharing in a variety of formats and with a wide range of stakeholders—from young advocates to scholars and community activists, from judges to policymakers, from transnational advocates to domestic advocates in the Global South.

About the Internship at Dejusticia

Dejusticia has been running a fellowship and internship program since our foundation, and most recently, we have been receiving graduate and undergraduate students from different regions of the world to work with us on research, communications, and advocacy in one or more of our research areas. We are looking for students who have excellent research and writing skills, have a strong sense of initiative, and who are willing to be part of a dynamic, young, and brilliant team of academic-activists not only from Colombia but also other parts of the world. Spanish speaking skills are a plus, although there might be projects that are fit for applicants who only speak English.

About the Bonavero Fellowship at Dejusticia

The successful candidate will receive an award to assist with travel, accommodation, living, and other reasonable expenses associated with the internship. In determining the amount to be awarded, other sources of funding will be taken into account.

The candidate will also be expected to provide a full report on their work at the end of their internship.

Please refer to the overview page referring specifically to the application process and eligibility criteria.


This Fellowship is made possible by generous gifts from the AB Charitable Trust and Eric Lewis.